Challenge #02096-E272: Empty Perfection
A group of colonists find an abandoned city, complete with canals, solar power, etc, with only one problem -- no people -- Anon Guest
The team Human had baulked before they entered the city limits. Just looking at the city had made Human Rese go back for their highest grade livesuit. Humans had an over-the-horizon radar for trouble, so the rest of the team -ha- followed suit. Progress into the actual city was slow and careful. Passive scans only. Checking every path for traps.
Many creatures do not fear the liminal as deeply as Humans do. They do not possess the Deathworlder ability of Thin Slicing, which tells the Human in question that something is most definitely not as it should be. This city scared the living spit out of Human Rese, and they were determined to protect their team from whatever it was that had caused the wrongness to exist.
As for the Phelidd, all they saw was a perfect city. Beautiful architecture, all things within perfectly maintained. Everything crisp and clean. The water from the taps was pure and the machinery was in perfect working order. Even the food machines were stocked with crisp and delicious-looking fare. Solar power kept everything running. Plants bloomed in abundance within the garden beds. All shaped to be aesthetically pleasing.
"I do not understand. We have entered abandoned cities before," protested Vith. "Why are you afraid of this one?"
Human Rese merely said, "What made them go?"
It was a question none of the Phelidd had thought to ask. The water was clean and completely free of pathogens. The food was new and fresh. The gardens were still neat. There was no evidence for the evacuation. No signs of an evacuation, in a hurry or otherwise. Just... a perfect city, perfectly maintained, perfectly ready for residents, perfectly humming along... with no other signs of life.
Other ominous portents began to creep in to Phelidd awareness. There was no birdsong. There were no insects. There should have been at least one curious creature wandering through the vacant streets. The only conclusion was that something was keeping them out.
That happened to be a conclusion that Human Rese had reached within seconds of seeing the city.
As Vith was wondering this, Human Rese snapped their fingers and pointed. "That's a temple." They turned to face the rest of the team. "If anything important is here, it'll be in there."
It took them most of the day to get that far. Human Rese took every precaution, including ducking when they opened the door. All to no apparent avail, because it was just as empty of life as everything else. It was even empty of furniture.
No pews. No iconography. Not even an interesting plaque. This was a beacon for a community, and it was as empty as a freshly-built warehouse. Empty of everything but the rainbow of honeycomb tiles on the floor.
Human Rese screamed when one Phelid foot pressed a tile down. No death traps were triggered. Just a rude blatt of an error sound. All the same, Human Rese spent ten minutes looking around for anything that had changed. Nothing had.
When they calmed down, Vith and Rhoss told them, "This is not a temple, it is a vault. The floor is a key pad."
Some time and effort, and more intense scans later, they cracked the code and entered the vault.
"Here is the church," recited Human Rese. "Here is the steeple. Open the door..."
Banks upon banks of stasis booths. Followed by deeper banks of cryostasis booths. Each with one occupant in perfect repose. All tied to an automated system that kept the houses clean, the gardens perfectly maintained, the food fresh, and everything just ready to go as soon as everything met the parameters.
Human Rese relaxed a little. There were also pest control systems that discouraged all but the most determined creatures from entering the city. Those that were that determined were eliminated and disassembled by nanomachines. No insects, so no birds or insectivorous life came. No birds, no bird predators. No ecology, in other words.
Of course, the inhabitants of the perfect city were waiting for a perfection that would never happen. Scrolling through the errata proved that. There was no way that absolute perfection could be achieved.
Deciding whether or not the potential citizens would be satisfied with a close approximation was higher than their pay grade.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / galaxiesurfer]
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